Bodybag – Predominance Of Insanity

Despite their young age as a band (being formed last year), the members of Bodybag have been active for a long time in their local underground Death and Black Metal scenes of A Coruña, playing in bands such as Black Goat, Noitébrega, Arkaik Excruciation, and of course the now disbanded Dishammer and veteran Machetazo. Meaning, these guys are highly skilled and experienced when it comes to the styles in question, especially old-school Death Metal, and that is exactly what their first release offers. Extremely down-to-earth Death reeking of good old ways.

The first song starts as a cool instrumental functioning as an intro, of slower and faster battering, giving us a hint of the violence to come, and after a spoken sample (of Heath Ledger as The Joker) we are given a taste of the real old-school and Grinding aspects of the album. The tempo of the Deathly beat is not too fast but just the right speed, while the following Grinding is equally classic in nature. I am getting extremely authentic feelings of old Autopsy, Grave and Terrorizer at the same time, while the band still sounds like an individual entity, something that is not that common these days.

The following seven songs deliver exactly the same awesomeness. The paces vary from aforementioned classic beatings of Death and Grinding blasts to D-beats and a few slower parts. The drums are played with over 20 years of experience in this art, with no excessive showing off, being as authentic in logics and performance as possible. The guitar and bass riffs are not a drop less bona fide, being quite minimal (as in not too melodic) and having together a nice guttural and growling yet ripping sound with a nice balance of low and high frequencies. The vocals are mostly early-nineties style cool low growlings without extra effects (with whispering, yelling, shouting and screaming parts here and there), also performed with great expertise. The fact that the drummer does half of the vocals gives of course the classic Reifert-effect in live situations, which is awesome as hell.

The overall mix of the album is of very high quality, being also loyal to the classic albums of the past. A very professionally produced package in all areas regarding sound. The lyrics are written in a very straightforward in-your-face kinda way, classic Death, Thrash and Crust Punk style, being mainly horror-movie-like depictions of gory violence and states of insanity, without being too cheesy or childish, fitting the music perfectly. This is Death Metal after all. And as an awesome final touch, the cover-artwork has that cool black and white tattoo-like drawing feeling, done by a pro.

The relatively short running time of the album (21mins) matters not when compared to the effectiveness of the material. This MLP is a total must-hear (and purchase) to all into the old-school ways of Death. If you still hang on to your albums of the early nineties with bloody hands, and curse the more modern (especially technical) currents of this art, you are guaranteed to get shivers down your spine and orgasms in your macabre mind with this stuff. Only Death is real!

Released as a vinyl by Living Dead Society, as a cassette by Noise Not War Records, and as a CD by Unholy Prophecies.